Stars and wishes, hugs and kisses...
by Jei
Summary: Dreams can come true, but what does it take to turn fantasy into reality, and is it worth it?
1. When you wish upon a star...

Takeru and Hikari sat on a grassy knoll in the digital world

_Author's notes: _I don't own digimon, Takeru, Hikari, Tailmon, Patamon, etc, blah, blah, blah, don't sue me. It takes place a few years after 02 ends. Enjoy the fiction!

Takeru and Hikari sat on a grassy knoll in the digital world, Patamon and Tailmon curled up and sleeping on their respective laps. It had been a long day of making sure all was right in the parallel world, and their digimon were taking a well-deserved rest. The group had been watching the sunset in silence, appreciating the sheer beauty of something few people ever see.

Even though it had put her digimon to sleep some time ago, Hikari continued to softly stroke Tailmon's silky white fur in a gentle repetitive motion as she unconsciously nuzzled into her. A sudden, odd, thought suddenly sprang into her head, one that she felt was interesting enough to break the pleasant silence of the moment.

"Oi, Takeru…" She said softer than usual as to not wake either of the sleeping digimon, "Have you ever wondered what the life of a digimon must be like?"

"What do you mean?" Takeru inquired, looking up from scratching between Patamon's ears.

"Well, just think about it, how different it must be… Going from a kawaii fuzzy chibi creature, to something possessing enough power to destroy entire buildings, in only a few moments, and then going back in the same amount of time."

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean. It's kind of like going from a little kid to an adult, only with a few seconds in between as opposed to years."

"It must be awful hard on them, having to do it at the drop of a hat when we want them to, too."

"Well, I think they're built for it. Heck, I think they enjoy it. Koushiro actually tried explaining some of his theories on digimon to me once, and tat was one of them. Something about how it's similar to how we're built to enjoy eating because it makes sure we'll do it."

"But still…" Hikari leaned backwards, letting herself fall into the cool grass. She stretched out on her back, and shifted the napping Tailmon from her thighs to her stomach, continuing to look at her digimon in a way she never had before. "I've never really thought about it, or appreciated it before this. Of course, I don't think I could ever really appreciate it, not without going through it myself. It's really difficult to imagine."

"Yeah…" Takeru agreed with her, finally understanding some of what she was trying to get across. "I always knew that these guys gave it their all for us, but I never bothered to really look at just what it was they specifically did. It s hard to imagine without thinking about it." He lay back, assuming the same pose as her. It had been a long day for more than their digimon.

"What do you suppose it would be like to go through it?"

"Nani, you mean the whole digivolving thing?'

"Hai, but the rest of their life, too." A slight smirk crossed her face "Like never having to go to school…"

"…And being able to fly…" Takeru also let a slight smile out.

"…Or having a partner that let's you sleep even though your cutting off circulation to her legs...." Hikari stifled a slight giggle, realizing that Tailmon had been napping for almost a half hour. Since transferring her digimon onto her torso, her legs had been filled with the pins and needles following numbness, and her arm was beginning to get tired. "Seriously, though, I've always wondered what it would be like to digivolving."

"Hikarimon shinka… Bishoujomon!" Takeru said jokingly. Hikari gave a mock victory sign, giggling. Takeru joined in on the laughter, and neither of them could stop. 

"Bisoujomon?" She questioned, reading something from between the lines of his joke. "You think I'm pretty?" Her cheeks took on a slightly red highlight, and she turned her head away from him in embarrassment.

Takeru felt panic wash over him, his laughter taking on a more nervous tone. "Well… I uh… You're not _ugly_…"

"Gee, thanks." She rolled her eyes as her redder than usual complexion faded. Things became silent once again.

"I called her pretty, and she got embarrassed over it." Takeru thought. "She must be a bit mad at me now…"

"He called me pretty, and he got embarrassed over it." Hikari thought to herself. "How sweet."

Takeru let out a sigh, putting his arms behind his head and staring at the now night-sky. He hadn't noticed it gradually getting dark, but now gazed deep into the star-speckled beyond, pondering the entire conversation he had been having with Hikari. A moving trial of light caught his eye. "Hey look," He pointed towards the object "A shooting star."

"Cool." Hikari responded, her eyes finding the "Hurry, make a wish!"

"Oh, I can't think of anything. You do it."

"No, you saw it first, you should make a wish."

"Nah…"

"Here, we'll make one together." She took his hand in hers, and this time it was his turn to blush. Luckily, Hikari had her eyes on the star. "Okay, now close your eyes and make your wish."

The pair closed their eyes and made their wishes, both of which related to the conversation and events of their time here. Hikari released Takeru's hand, which he placed back behind his head. "What did you wish for?" He asked her.

"You're not supposed to tell, silly, or else it won't come true."

"Oh." Takeru considered her words for a moment, and was confused by the details. "…But, don't you close your eyes and not tell anyone your wish for when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake?"

Hikari's eyes bugged, and she slapped a hand to her head. "Darn. You're right. I think you say some sort of poem or something for shooting stars…"

"No, I think that's for the first star of the night… You know, 'Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight…'"

"' I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.' Hai, you're right about that one too… what _do_ you say for shooting stars?"

Putting his to his chin, Takeru wondered. "I'm not really sure. I think you might have to yell it out loud…"

"Yeah, that's probably it." Hikari reassured him. "Kami, I'm almost glad I didn't know that, not with the wish _I _made." She added as an afterthought. "If Takeru heard it, he'd freak out for sure." She let out a yawn; this really _had _been a long day. "We really should be getting home, Takeru…"

"Yeah, but it's such a nice night, and you don't see the stars in the city like you can here…Let's just say a little longer. Besides, it's Saturday, and we've been busting our butts all day. I think we deserve some nice relaxation time."

Takeru made a strong case, and the comfortable position kept her from moving better than if she had been tied down. "It's be such a shame to wake Tailmon and Patamon, too, after they worked all day…"

"Yep…" Takeru let out a yawn. "Such a shame…" his voice faded to a gentle snoring.

"It'd be a shame to wake you, too." Hikari whispered to herself. "Ah, well, if anything big comes up, the others will come and find us." She thought, justifying this impromptu sleep over. "Sweet dreams, Takeru." She whispered as she looked at her sleeping friend, before catching one last glance at the starry sky, remembering the shooting star from earlier. "Maybe my wish will come true in my dreams..." was her final thought before she was whisked off to dreamland, as the three others in the foursome already had been.


	2. Hello me, I'm you.

Takeru awoke to the sun's warm rays beating down on him, indicating the beginning of a new day. He stretched his arms, letting out a yawn, only to shut his mouth as the sound coming from his mouth sounded freakishly unlike it would have come from him.

"Weird." He thought to himself. "But I heard that sound before… Can't seem to place it off the top of my head, though…" Still not completely awake, he rubbed his eyes with his… paws? Takeru stared in disbelief and confusion at the tiny black things that should have been hands. But these were not his hands. These were paws. These were _Patamon's _paws. This was not good.

Shaking with nervousness, he brought a paw towards his face. He let out a terrified gasp, his worst fears confirmed. He felt not smooth skin around his mouth and eyes, but soft fur. Rubbing both paws all over himself, he looked down and realized that not just his face and hands, but his entire body was that of his own digimon's.

"There is a perfectly good explanation for this." He had yet to awake, and was still dreaming. Yes. This was all just a dream. Unable to effectively pinch himself, Takeru grabbed one of his outrageously long ears and pulled with all the strength he could muster, but to no avail. He produced more than enough pain to awake him from any dream, but didn't seem to come out of unconsciousness.

Now something was definitely wrong. "Don't panic, Takeru. Panic will not help. Panic will not solve anything. Panic will not tell you why you look like a chubby bat-eared digimon when you should be looking like a teenage boy!" Breathing in and out, he nearly hyperventilated himself.

He forced himself to calm down, taking a few deep breaths. Okay, now that he had come to grips with what was going on, he wondered whatto do about it. He didn't dare wake up his own body, partly because he didn't know who was in it now, partly because he didn't _want _to know who was in it now.

The only person who could help him now was Hikari. Although the idea of her seeing him like this made his stomach flip-flop, she was the only one able to open a digital gate, maybe track down Izumi, and figure out this whole situation. His eagerness to set things right again outweighed his vanity.

Crawling over to the still sleeping Hikari, he nudged her shoulder slightly, whispering in her ear. "Hikari, wake-up!" No response. He poked harder. "Hikari!" he increased the volume on his pleas "Wake-up!"

Hikari rolled over to one side, but not before Takeru heard a faint mumble of "Go 'way… eating fish… much fish…"

"Eating fish?" he wondered, "Odd dream..." Getting as close as he possibly could to her ear, Takeru took in a deep breath, and let out the loudest possible scream his body could muster.

"HIKARI! WAKE-UP!" he screamed in an almost shrill voice.

The sleeping girl awoke with a start, sitting upright and knocking Takeru flat on his back, as well as sending Tailmon tumbling. Looking down, she saw Patamon lying there. "Patamon, why are you waking me up so rudely? And why are you calling me Hikari?"

"Why am I calling you Hikari? Because you- wait… who do _you_ think you are?"

"I'm Tailmon, of course. Who else would I be?"

"Tailmon!?" He proclaimed in bewilderment. "Look at yourself!" So he was not the only one with a case of displaced identity…

"Hikari" studied her hands in wonderment, as if she were looking at them for the first time. She examined herself, looking puzzled at what she was seeing.

"Pa… Patamon? Wha… what happened? Why am I in _Hikari's_ body?"

"Beats me." The small digimon said, shrugging his shoulders "Probably the same reason I'm in Patamon's body."

"You mean… You're _not _Patamon?"

"Nope… I'm really… Takeru." He said sheepishly, his voice barely raised above a whisper when he gave his own name. It was a difficult to admit to anyone, especially Hikari. Or at least someone who _looked_ like Hikari.

"Well, If you're in there…" Tailmon said, pointing to Takeru's new self.

"…And you're in there…"Takeru said, pointing back.

"Then who's in there?" They said in unison,pointing to each of their previous bodies.

"Kami, please don't let Hikari be in my body." Takeru thought to himself. That was possibly the only way to make this situation any worse. He wanted Hikari to know him, yes, but not know him that well. He went off to investigate who he was being inhabited by, while Tailmon checked on her own self.

Crawling over to where her old body had fallen, Tailmon hesitated due to the absolute weirdness that came from seeing yourself from an objective point of view. She faced up to the challenge, however, prodding the cat digimon with her finger.

"Taichi, I don't wanna go to school…" came a garbled response as the body turned away, trying to get comfortable in a bed that wasn't there.

"Oh boy. She's in for something worse than school… Well, almost worse." Tailmon wondered how Hikari would react to finding herself placed in the body of a digimon. An extremely attractive and beautiful digimon, yes, but a digimon none the less. "Gomen, Hikari, but you'd better wake up."

"Awww…" the Hikari in Tailmon's body rolled over, and peered upward at her own face, a look of confusion. "Hey, since when do I have a mirror over my bed?"

"Um… well... you're not in your bed, and I'm not your reflection… Y'see… well… oh, just look at yourself!"

Hikari looked down at her body, and immediately freaked out, as would be expected. "Why am I in Tailmon's body? How did this happen? Who are you?"

Tailmon sat on the ground, crossing her legs and getting ready to brief Hikari for the bad news. "Answers, in reverse order: I'm Tailmon, don't know, probably the same reason that Takeru is in Patamon's body."

"Takeru is in Patamon's body?" Hikari breathed a sigh of half-relief. She would have done her best to hide her present situation from Takeru, and knowing that he was in the same boat made it seem a little less embarrassing. A _little._

"Yeah, and Patamon's in mine." Takeru said as he and Patamon walked over in each other's bodies.

"This is too weird…" Patamon said, examining his limbs. "I can't believe I'm actually in control of your body, Takeru!"

"Now that we've figured out who is who, what are we going to do about it?" Hikari asked the group.

"Good question. We should probably contact Izumi and see if he can do anything about this." Takeru.

"What about Gennai? He might know what's going on." Tailmon suggested.

"That's a good idea, too. Patamon, get me my D-Terminal, please?" Takeru asked.

Digging into his pockets, Patamon found his partner's mini-computer. "Here you go." He handed it down to Takeru, who proceeded to tap out a message, despite finding it awkward and time-consuming to type with paws.

"There!" Takeru cried in achievement, after spending five minutes a task that he usually did in five seconds. He'd never take five opposable digits for granted again, that was for sure. "Until they reply, we should probably just relax, maybe get used to these new bodies while we've got some spare time."

No matter how many times she told herself that it was really Takeru inside, Tailmon just couldn't get over the fact that _Patamon_ was actually giving orders instead of taking them for once. None of the digimon made very good leaders, except maybe the more human-like evil digimon they seemed to encounter on a regular basis. Seeing Patamon anyting other than his happy-go-lucky self easily made you think he was possessed.

_Author's Notes: _Okay, who expected any of that? Very few people, I'm guessing. Don't worry, they'll be plenty of romance in the near future, I just want it to have a worthy build-up.


End file.
